Sinn Féin Ard Fheis calls for radical action to create jobs

Among the key themes at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis was the need to create jobs and rejuvenate the economy. Delegates endorsed detailed policy proposals aimed at getting Ireland back to work. Speaker after speaker highlighted the failures of the current Fianna Fáil/ Green Party government but also the policies of Fine Gael which were described as no different to the positions of the current government.

Speaking live on RTÉ and BBC on Saturday morning Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin argued the need for the protection of public services from cutbacks and the need to integrate public services North and South.

He said: “Public Services are under attack because Fianna Fáil-led Governments by their bad policies and bad management over the past 12 years have bankrupted the economy. And how are they trying to fix it?

“Not by calling to account the bankers and developers and property speculators and the so-called regulators who caused it. Not by making the wealthy pay their fair share.

“No, the Fianna Fáil solution is to slash the wages of low paid workers, slash social welfare and slash public services. Public services are being undermined and public servants are being demonised.

“Who are these public servants? They are the nurses who care for people in hospital and in the community. They are the teachers who teach our children. They are the firefighters and gardai who protect our communities. They are the workers who keep our water flowing and our streets clean.

“In the past year as recession deepened and as the Fianna Fáil/Green Government cut savagely into our public services, Sinn Féin representatives in the Oireachtas, on local authorities and in our communities have been battling side by side in solidarity with all those who are determined to maintain vital public services.

“We have highlighted the heartlessness of a Government that could take €8.50 per week out of the pockets of people who are caring for elderly or disabled relatives in their homes. We have opposed the plans of a Government that wants to fatally damage our health services by taking a further 1,100 acute hospital beds out of the system in 2010. We have stood against a Government that trumpets its commitment to education but that condemns children to learn in pre-fabs and takes support away from children with special needs.

“But we have done more. We have presented our real, viable alternatives, based on fairness, efficiency and the delivery of better services to the people. And those services will be delivered better also on an all-Ireland basis. We must end the duplication of Departments and agencies and systems on this small island and integrate our public services” he concluded.

NAMA

Later on Saturday Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin led the party’s charge against NAMA stating: “There is no doubt about who Fianna Fáil and the Greens are serving with NAMA. It is a bailout for the greediest and the most corrupt in Irish society.

“Throughout the so-called Celtic Tiger years, Fianna Fáil-led Governments pampered this elite group. They allowed them to benefit from massive tax breaks at unknown cost to the State. They allowed them to determine the State’s housing policy – a policy which was no policy but to let the market drive everything. And it drove property prices to unreal and unsustainable levels and drove the economy over a cliff.

“It drove a frenzy of greed for property, inducing many who could not afford to do so, to borrow to buy in the grossly inflated market. It drove debt to levels previously unknown in this country. It was fuelled by cheap loans supplied by a banking system corrupted by the culture of greed that saw massive salaries, bonuses and perks lavished at all senior levels in the financial institutions.

“Who are the biggest losers in all of this? Not the bankers and the property speculators who did the crime because they will never do the time. Not the politicians who facilitated them because no-one in Fianna Fáil or the PDs and now the Green Party ever admit any responsibility for anything and they are never made to pay the price for their disastrous policies and disastrous management.

“No, the real losers in all of this are the hundreds of thousands who have lost their jobs, they are the families saddled with massive mortgages for whom the fear of losing their homes is a constant in their daily lives, they are the lower and middle income earners who are being punished by savage Budget cuts, they are the young with no prospects of work at home, the carers and cared for, the children with special educational needs and the blind. In this society today people are forced to pass on a doctor’s visit or on their medication because they have to meet other pressing needs for themselves and their families.

“The restructured banking sector envisaged by Sinn Féin goes far beyond just restoring normality to the system. There was nothing normal about a sector that systematically overcharged customers, was complicit in tax evasion and routinely withdrew access to financial services from working class and rural areas because of profit pursuit. As well as intense regulation of the sector, Sinn Féin wants to see a banking system that contributes to the greater good of an economy that serves society as a whole. We also want to see all those who participated in and encouraged the practices that brought about the current crisis held to account and criminal convictions pursued” he said.

McCarthy Report

In his remarks North Monaghan Councillor, Brian McKenna said that the government has no mandate to implement the McCarthy report. “Fianna Fáil were elected on promises of lower taxes and higher spending while the Green Party were elected on a promise of delivering world peace” he joked.

“Since then we have seen broken promise after broken promise. In County Monaghan we have seen the removal of hospital services and the slashing of community funding right across the board. The McCarthy report is being implemented by stealth.

“Across this state we are seeing the outworking of a report that was drafted by right-wing economists at the behest of a right wing government. Any further implementation of the McCarthy report will devastate healthcare for the sick, education for children, care for older people and social supports for all those who need them.

“Having refused to accept responsibility for the economic recession which was caused by its policies, the Government is now using the McCarthy report as the basis for cuts that will hit the most vulnerable the hardest. At the same time it is trying to claim credit when it does not implement some of the harshest measures.

“This Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government have no mandate to implement any such programme. Therefore it should put this programme before the people in a General Election. Let the Government parties and indeed all parties set out their plans to address the economic crisis and let the people decide” Cllr. McKenna stated.

Education

During the education section County Monaghan schoolteacher, Enda Tourish outlined the implications that government cutbacks have already had on the education of young people. He also outlined the anger felt by many teachers at the manner in which wage cuts have been implemented by the government. “Teachers and children and others who provide and use public services are the people who are paying the heaviest price of Fianna Fáil in power” he said.

Providing an effective opposition

Speaking at the Ard Fheis South Monaghan Councillor, Matt Carthy, stated that it was Sinn Féin alone who would represent the needs of those people who were let down by Fianna Fáil over the past decade.

He said: “Unemployment, poverty, emigration and partition are realities for this generation just as they were for our counterparts in the thirties, the fifties, the eighties.

“And why are we back to this point? Because the same politics, implemented by the same parties, continues to dominate this state.

“We have a government that refuses to stand up to the vested interests that created an economic crisis; that forces hundreds of thousands of young people to live in poverty or to move abroad. A government that bails out the banks but shrugs as they tell local communities ‘the money’s just not there’.

“And standing in the wings, ready to take power simply because people are so fed up with Fianna Fail are Fine Gael and Labour.

“We don’t have to wait until they’re in power to know they will be no different.

“When Fianna Fáil were privatising state assets, crippling broadband provision, wiping out the Irish sugar industry and costing thousands of Irish jobs in companies like Aer Lingus– Fine Gael supported them.

“When Fianna Fáil cut the wages and living conditions of the low paid and the unemployed – Fine Gael promised they could do worse.

“And while Fianna Fáil have gutted services from hospitals such as in Monaghan – Fine Gael have said they will not restore them.

“These parties don’t represent the young unemployed or family farmers, or low paid workers or are those who want to see a United Ireland.

“In Sinn Féin we know whose side we’re on and we don’t care if the media, or big business, or the cosy political cartel don’t like it.

“We’re on the side of jobs for our young people. We’re on the side of fair play for local communities. We’re on the side of a health service that doesn’t care how much money is in your bank account.

“Put simply, we’re on the side of the Irish people so let’s take that message to the country.

“Ireland, now, more than ever needs a strong Sinn Féin. Let us go into our communities and deliver just that”.